Survey finds black men divided

Black men in America today are deeply divided, about themselves and their country.

As individuals, black men report the same ambitions as most Americans – for career success, a loving marriage, children, respect. And yet most are harshly critical of black men as a group, associating themselves with laziness, irresponsibility and crime.

Black men describe a society rife with opportunities for advancement and models for success. But they also express a deep fear that their hold on the good life is fragile, in part because of discrimination they continue to experience in their daily lives.

This portrait of the divided black man emerges from a survey conducted by the Washington Post, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard University. The survey of 2,864 people, including a sample of 1,328 black men, aimed to capture the experiences and perceptions of black men at a time marked by increasing debate about how to build on their achievements and address the failures that endure decades after the civil rights movement.

In many ways, the outward and inward struggles of black men appear to reflect where the nation is on its journey toward racial equality – unquestionably farther along and, yet, at risk of moving backward.

Many are left behind: The suicide rate among young black men has doubled since 1980. One in four black men has not worked for more than a year, twice the proportion of male whites or Latinos. And trends suggest a third of black males born today will spend time in prison.

“I just get frustrated with my brothers. With black men … wasting life. But then, on the other hand, I wonder: Is there something in society that keeps us down?” said Edward Howell, 57, a District of Columbia resident who was interviewed in the poll.

But the harsh realities also obscure what the survey results illuminate so clearly: Black men in America are a diverse group, and the truth of their experience can be found as much among the ordinary lives of the vast middle as in the extremes.

“This country is filled with highly successful black men who are leading balanced, stable, productive lives working all over the labor market,” said Hugh Price, former president of the National Urban League. “They’re stringing fiber-optic cable for Verizon or working the floor at Home Depot. … It’s a somewhat invisible story.”

On the whole, survey respondents showed a powerful connection to a common history that crosses lines of education, income, age and geography, and stands in sharp contrast to the perceptions of many of their white counterparts.

The poll also documents how the enormous changes in society over the last generations have rippled through the lives of black men. But as the distance between the races begins to narrow, new tensions have emerged in the way black men perceive themselves and their lives:

•Six in 10 black men say their collective problems owe more to what they have failed to do themselves rather than “what white people have done to blacks.” At the same time, half report they have been treated unfairly by the police and a clear majority say the economic system is stacked against them.

•More than half say they place a high value on marriage – compared with 39 percent of black women – and six in 10 strongly value having children. Yet at least 38 percent of all black fathers in the survey are not living with at least one of their young children, and a third of all never-married black men have a child. Six in 10 say that black men disrespect black women.

•Three in four say they value being successful in a career, more than either white men or black women. Yet majorities also say that black men put too little emphasis on education and too much emphasis on sports and sex.

•Eight in 10 say they are satisfied with their lives and six in 10 report that it is a “good time” to be a black man in the United States. But six in 10 also report they often are the targets of racial slights or insults, two-thirds believe the courts are more likely to convict black men than whites, and a quarter report they have been physically threatened or attacked because they are black.

•Black men say they strongly believe in the American Dream – nine in 10 black men would tell their sons they can become anything they want to in life. But this vision of the future is laden with cautions and caveats: Two-thirds also would warn their sons that they will have to be better and work harder than whites for equal rewards.